Some of you know that the one of the tools I used to study cancer evolution is game theory . Game Theory has been traditionally used more in fields like sociology and economics and probably most of the experts in the field work in sociological and economy problems.

Recently I have read this article at Reason magazine that explains the reason some countries are poor and remain poor from the Game Theory point of view.

If you see things through the lenses of game theory it makes no sense for a dictatorship in which the dictator does not see his/her future in danger. At the end of the dayif you are in for the long run it is better for you to steal less from your people if by doing so the country will develop faster and thus your cut, although smaller in percentage, will be higher in absolute terms.

The problem,it seems, is that in a dictatorship there is usually several layers of corruption and in each layer, the good long term prospects of the prospective corrupt are different so there is always an incentive to steal as soon as possible as much as possible. This recursive corruption has also the side effect of producing a race to the bottom in which more and more people are involved, each of them affecting the dynamics of the overall corruption in a different sense.